No normal weather anymore!!

Here is today's marine weather graphic summary, which has been pretty much the pattern since I got out here for the "near offshore" trip. Weather/wind warnings everywhere except near home harbour where we were not able to sail more than 5 hours a day before the wind died!!

Baptizing the new Dodger

This is video Neil took when we were in 20kts+ after leaving Silva Bay heading north on Georgia Straight. The new dodger and some crew were 'baptized' in spray. Tatoosh handled well with 1 reef and full jib. Later at slightly less than 20kts we shook out the reef and all was well.

Last Round Up

We appeared to have a weather window and made a long trek south down Georgia Straight, anchoring back at Otter Bay. It was about 12 hours and 7 of those were under motor. When we got to Otter Bay Terry had made the decision to not carry on.

Neil and I were gagging for a beer and Neil went "shopping" for beer on the docks and came back with 2 donated cans!...tasted great. We had a crew meeting; it didn't make sense to think about going offshore with only the three of us and as it turned out the weather window closed again so we would not have made it in any event.

Neil decided to join up with Leagh and her friends early rather than just putting in more time here. We will try to organize a short offshore trip before Hawaii so that Neil can confirm if he is comfortable being offshore/overnighting,etc.

We took all day Saturday following the wind to end up at Sydney spit to be in position to pick up Leagh and friends for a day sail on Sunday. Ralph agreed to stay for 2 days for my selfish purpose of getting more celestial training from him.

I'll post more later, but for all intents and purposes the "near Charlotte" trip mutated to "near offshore" to now being done! Sometimes the weather gods just don't cooperate.

some quick pictures

Skipper up themast for some minor repairs.

Pre trip crew photo with "official" watch caps made by Robin.

Day 5& 6

We left , on the advice of our Calgary weather router, early from Silva Bay to catch the morning blow before it was due to die in the afternoon. It was good to catch a shower and get some laundry done.

We had a good run with combinations of staysail, reefed main and all sails in winds that started at 20 kts. The new dodger and some of the crew, got baptized by salt spray today. The winds then died out quickly at about 13;00. We then motored for 2 hrs to Jedidiah Marine park.

Enroute skipper had to go up the mast to repair a lazy jack line, but it wasn't an quick fix, so he came down and finished it at anchor. We anchored at "white rock bay", just south of Deep cove, a very pretty spot.

Menu for today was grilled cheese sandwiches enroute, and a fusion dinner of Italy meets India; tortillini augmented with chicken, onions, mushroom curry and chocolate pudding for desert.

Day 6:
Still at Jedidiah: decided to take an off day and explore the island and have some quiet time. Ralph stayed behind on anchor watch and we three went ashore. It was low tide in the coves and we had to carry the dinghy about 300 meters to get it to a safe spot to leave it for our walk-about. The homestead here [ island was donated by last owners as marine park] shows how much work was involved in the good old days. After walking through dense forest you break out into a 15 acre hay field and orchard that had been hand cleared. The old house has a great view, but if you were trying to bring home the groceries at low tide, it would a long, muddy walk!

A breakfast of pancakes and ham was followed by breakfast burritos for lunch [ courtesy of Neil]. Skipper confirmed the damper bread receipe with home base and made up a fresh loaf of bread to have with the second bag of tortillini which was now turned into a soup using chicken broth, left over ham from lunch and some corn.

We plan on early getaway to take advantage of the morning winds enroute to Desolation Sound.
PS: update: weather window in Juan De Fuca seems to be opening so we are now planning for a n early departure to catch the morning winds and make a LONG run down Georgia Straight to Boundary Passage tomorrow...stay tuned to see if weather gods cooperate.

Day 4

Day 4:

We raised anchor manually this morning because the windlass wouldn't
work and I couldn't take the time to troubleshoot it and still make
slack at Active Pass. We transited right at slack and as luck would have
it, both in& outbound ferries had passed through just before us.

Once we exited we had about 12 kts of wind that died within the hour and
we then ended up motoring to Silva Bay. Before motoring we were able to
go through training on using harnesses and jack/safety line.

Small rodeo during docking due to tight corner, wind blowing the bow off
and tense skipper; however no damage done and we are safely at dock. My
voltmeter has died , which i needed to troubleshoot the windlass; so I
went to wharfinger to see if they had one I could borrow for 20 minutes
and got a very frosy reception. I tried the Silva Bay Boat building
school and found Cameron working on an old canoe; he said sure but he'd
have to go get his meter; turns out this meant leaving his work, getting
his dinghy and rowing out to his boat at anchor. We gave him a couple of
cold beer [ Neil had already scoped out the cold beer store here] for
his trouble.

We got chatting and turns out that a friend of his has just bought a
Valiant and he wanted to see inside,etc. He is also keen on being crew
for Hawaii! A final intersecting circle: his good friends in Kamloops
are the organizers for the 1200 Km Randoneer ride that Mike is training
for.

Oh yes, back to the windlass: while rest of crew was off having showers
and drinking the new found beer, Ralph help me troubleshoot the
windlass; it turned out to be a slightly corroded deck switch which i
have got working again. However, it pointed out that I should carry a
spare anchor windlass switch - about the only spare we don't have. [ and
get new voltmeter!]

Dinner tonight was a previously frozen stew [same as last night] but
resurrected by disguising it as pasta sauce with spaghetti and cabbage
salad. We also carefully cut the last of the Otter Bay strudels into 4
very equal parts.

The plan at the moment is to find some wind that is not a gale and go
sailing; will report on how we do later.

Over and out from Silva Bay.

Day 3

Day 3:

Weather forecast continues to extend with gales/near gales at west and
east entrance to Juan de Fuca; this means that IF there is going to be
an opportunity to get out offshore, we will not have enough time to go
anywhere. So, the decision has been made for Plan B; we will go north
in Georgia Straight and get some time with the crew in some larger
( but less than gale) winds.

We left Bedwell by sailing off the mooring buoy, short tacking out of
the channel; we got the genakker up again, only to take it down 20
minutes later when the wind died completely. We drifted and had lunch
while waiting for the wind to build. Fortunately the current was in
our favour and although we were not moving in the water , we were
making way over ground. The plan was to have an 'organic' sail, i.e
not use the motor; destination was Otter Bay to be poised for
tomorrow's slack water in Active Pass to get to Georgia Straight.

We then circumnavigated Prevost Island to get some practice time; it
was a very strange day wind wise; with wind shifts/fading and battling
current, it took us over 2 hours to get from opposite entrance to
Montigue harbour up to Enterprise reef, a mere 2 miles away! At some
points we were tacking 180 degrees and in others tacking and loosing
ground. However, we stuck to the organic theme and didn't succumb to
temptation to start the engine.

After a day epic tacking , we arrived 1 mile from Otter Bay to try
anchoring under sail, only to have wind die completely. In addition
the cold, overcast skies opened up , sun came out , engine came on so
that we could get in for happy hour.

Neil and I rowed in to settle a bet as to whether the Otter bay
condo's would have a leaky wifi I could piggyback onto; turns out the
marina has it [ not advertised] and it reaches out to our
anchorage.... so we didn't have to row in. However, the row in paid
off in finding authentic apple strudel.

Dinner was heating up a Bev-made stew augmented with more rice and
some strudel for dessert; rest have been saved for tomorrow's second
breakfast.

Day 2

Day 2;

Is it really only day 2 ?!?...seems like we have been out for quite a while.

The weather reports for the West entrance to Juan de fuca are still not cooperating; our plan is to still ‘harbour hop’ our way to Sooke to be positioned to go when {if?) the weather cooperates. The winds have been building throughout the day so we can travel early to avoid the gale/near gale forecasted. If not, we go to Plan B and do something else.

We left Tumbo about 09:00, did some successful Man Over Board [ PC correct term should be Crew OverBoard] drills; then raised the genakker [ large light-weight sail]. After working out bugs with this we are at point to turn into Boundary Passage near East Point and the well named Boiling Reef and had a wind shift that turned into no wind. Down came the genakker, and on went the engine.
At one point we were making 0 kts over ground due to the current and had to tack across the current to make headway.

We stopped at Bedwell [ Poets cove] for fuel and found the last buoy at Beaumont marine park and called it an early day. Neil and I tested the dinghy outboard and went ashore for a hike up to Mt. Norman; we didn’t make it to the official viewpoint but did make the elevation – it felt good to get some exercise again. There was a very nervous osprey pair guarding their nest from crows and making a hell of a racket. We saw one of the parents taking a fish back to the nest.

It was a hot day, crew was tired and to avoid mutiny Neil and I did a beer run to Poet’s Cove via dinghy; this doesn’t quite violate ships articles about a dry boat – as Neil pointed out this applies to offshore only and we are 2-3 days away from that!

Dinner tonight was a second round of pork schnitzels since they thawed first; these were cooked and then cut up and added to spiced onions/mushrooms and butter chicken curry sauce over rice; followed by cherries with hot sauce over yogurt. I thought I had made enough rice to have left overs for rice pudding tomorrow, but alas, I once again neglected the NF [ Neil Factor]… there were no leftovers.

Ralph and I did some moon shot practice and as I write this the rest of the crew is having movie night watching episode 1 of “Rome”. The geek patrol was able to connect Ralph’s computer’s audio to the stereo so they have good audio.

Day 1

Day One: Current Position: Tumbo Island Marine Park [ right behind large party boat!] You can locate us on Google maps at

We had great visit with Kris & Erick Lares yesterday onboard; their boat is in Trinidad waiting out the hurricane season and they are here visiting and checking out their new property.

Neil has instituted a "gold star" or point system and Terry was up 3 until it was revealed he had not read his "must bring " list and had to run to Sydney for some last minute shopping.

After final prep,etc and the obligatory crew photo at E74, we left dock at 10:00 as planned. Not a lot of wiind but we did manage to get through some basic sail drills before we ran out of wind [ despite the forecast!] and motored around East Point to Tumbo Island. New bimini is taking some getting used to; i'm still feel a bit confined; but it is great for keeping us out of the sun.

After watching Neil eat we may have to make an auxiliary food stop; we did not use the "neil factor" in calculating the food!! Current plan will be to stop over in Sooke for food and to be in position to leave for the great beyond once the weather cooperates...i.e. winds are less than gale force in Juan de Fuca.

BTW; skipper lost a star because I forgot to top up with diesel before we left Canoe Cove -- we'll make a small diversion to a fuel dock in next day or so.

If the noise from the party boat doesn't shut down at sundown, we are planning on having neil suit up in his wet suit and swim over to cut their mooring line!!

Over and out from Tumbo

Pre Trip Week

This is the final week before departure; Ralph arrives on Monday, Neil on wednesday and Terry on Friday.

The key work list is relatively short and one key item is 'almost' done [the batteries].
I picked the batteries up in Nanaimo on my way through by taking the Horseshoe Bay ferry. Terry came over this morning to help wrestle the old batteries out and the new ones onto the boat.

The old batteries [ and they were OLD... purchased per stamp on side in 1999!] didn't have a lifting strap, so we had to improvise. No major hitches other than I need to get new jumpers made up since the terminal orientation of new batteries is different from the old. The new batteries are also more compact, so I will need to add some spacers to keep them from moving about. I think I'll raid the scrap wood pile at the float house construction site when I return to E dock after this update and see what I can improvise from that.

I am renting a life raft for this trip since we couldn't get a delivery date before our departure; unfortunately that means money down the drain but it does mean we can take our time to make a purchase decision [ i.e before next season].

I stumbled across a blog site of a crew sailing from Vancouver to Hawaii on a Valiant who arrived there in late june. I'll put the link on the side bar for anyone interested.

Over and out

End of phase 2??

I think I'm just about at the end of being useful here. Unfortunately it appears that the replacement batteries will have to be put in the week before we set sail. That should be straightforward, but there is always the risk of something going sideways.

I have had a chat with a leading commercial compass adjustor and he suspects my 30 year old compass is dead!!...he says they may last 1/2 that time. He also found that by doing a simple test he gave me to try, he has seen as many as 50% of "new" compasses in a marine store that are toast; the pivot points don't travel well apparently. This is about a 1/2 boat unit hit if this is the case and one more item for the TODO list....

Oh yes, the "secret" test: you take a tape measure, extend it and approach the compass slowly with it until the compass rotates about 2-3 degrees, then remove the tape. do this in opposite direction also. If the compass doesn't return to the original start point, the pivots are shot.

By this point I think we are well down the priority list of SSCC [ Seaworthiness, Safety, Comfort, Cosmetic] and are closely approaching "cosmetic" items; such as painting, varnishing,etc. The only remaining major purchase now is a life-raft.

The TODO list will never  be empty, the question is when is it close enough?

This will be last posting until "phase 3", pre-departure in July when I'm back from Saudi, then the wedding of my niece in Nova Scotia.

Over and out for now,

Bruce

Photos

I'm having trouble formatting these, so bear with me.... the titles should be obvious and my time is running out here...so that is it!

cheers

Working with a bad memory

For this little saga to have its full impact, I need to provide some background.
Last fall, we bought new VHF radio on sale, along with remote microphone to mount in the cockpit. I took c areful measurements of the nav station to build a faceplate to mount the radio over top of the SSB radio at the side of the nav station. The old VHF was mounted underneath the nav table which took up leg room and was akward to use.

I built a faceplate in Calgary out of sheet Aluminium. While researching on the best method of preparing aluminium for painting I stumbled onto a whole other sub-culture -- the art of polishing Aluminium [Al]. There are guys who take hours and hours to take Al parts off their cars/motor cycles and with various steps of grinding/polishing turn them into a polished finished that rivals chrome or stainless steel. I tried to mimic it but in my usual minimalist [ i.e. lazy] way and got my faceplate looking 'good enough'.

When Robin and I were on Tatoosh in April I did a test fit and all was well. I put the plate away until I got to the TODO ite m "install new radio"; that happened this week. I spent a day tearing apart the electrical and removing the old VHF, pulling new cables [ a challenge for one person!] and getting reading to install the radio. [ you can see the mess in the photo's]. Then I started to look for the faceplate; and look and look.... i tore apart every storage location. But there was no sign of the plate; and no idea where it is. The only good news was that I found the missing camera cable and now can upload some photos.

Today, I went to Industrial plastics in Victoria, got some black plastic and spend the morning remaking the faceplate. I finally got the radio installed, the remote control/mic in the cockpit and some semblance of order. I still need to put everything back into the nav station and the various cubby holes which needed a tidy/sorting in any event. You can see a before and after shot of the nav station below.

I expect to spend tomorrow cleaning up, putting away tools and putting Tatoosh to bed until July.
I've also uploaded some shots of the new bimini.

Over and out from the boat: it will be good to be on the boat with sailing in mind and not a long TODO list.

phase 3-update 3

So, what the heck has Bruce actually done this last week since the sea trial trip? Here is the list, if for no other reason than to have the joy of crossing them off the TODO list once AGAIN!:

• Gartside here to replace packing on shaft seal
• ordered replacement batteries from Nanaimo Marine (Rolls-Surrette, one of few true deep cycle batteries, made in Nova Scotia)
• picked up outboard motor at shop in Victoria
• parts for new outboard tank and installed
• new tethers for harnesses; added snap shackle to make it easy to disconnect
• repainted length indicators on anchor chain
• repainted windlass
• cleaned out dried mud in anchor locker
• >repaired lingering water leaks
• >repaired/improved backup foot-pump in galley for sea water and fresh water; cleaned all bronze fittings and added new block valve.
• new positive latch on anchor locker door
• replaced oil in windlass gear box
• greased/checked steering cables
• put on chaff guard on fuel tank vent line
• bimini completed (by Hank) and installed
• marked/colour coded dock lines and genakker lines
• purchased ATN sock for Genakker
• installed drinking water filter
• removed jack line pad eyes and took to shop to have steel backing plates made up [ ready Monday??]
• measured up lee cloths for aft cabin
• booked Blackline to weld/repair life-line fittings
• called re used life raft: Monday/tuesday?
• tracked down compass expert, nothing done yet
• paid annual moorage contract at Canoe Cove [ouch!!...multiple boat units!!]
• tracked down Type 1 life jacket
• got my hair cut!!
• re-scheduled travel to Saudi

I have NOT yet located the elusive camera cable so I have no new photos to upload to Blog.
I'm off to forage for food and put some ale into the ship's grog storage for later this evening.

Phase 2 -Update 2

Quick update and some local news:

> took in Genaker to have sock installed;it is now back on board and will make using this sail a piece of cake.
> Hank showed up and did final install of bimini along with the side panels; the design works and looks good. In Hank's words " it is not often that a project is both functional and looks good". He did this to our spec , not something he had done before and it looks good.
> I repaired the plumbing problem we had on the VIA trip, wherein the foot pump for the sea water [ to use for rinsing,etc to reduce water usage] also had a 3-way valve to allow it to be used as manual pump for the fresh water. However, the 3-way could be set to have all 3 connections hydraulically connected : the result was we ended up with sea water filling the fresh water tank. I've installed a ball valve on the line from the fresh water tank to prevent this happening again.
> tracked down lingering small water leak; i think they are all now fixed...will see [hear?]
> I had a quick chat with another Valiant that dropped anchor last night, "Faneui" ..this is the Valiant robin and I swapped photo's with 3 years ago; they had tried to catch up to us while we were inching our way homeward after our engine 'problem'. They motored over on their way out and remembered that we "won the race we had".....

Local news:
> you may not have heard but they have now recovered a 4th foot on a beach; there have been 4 right feet found on beaches in the gulf islands and near Vancouver. No speculation as to origin yet!
> guy who has taken over the old office of Taylor'd charters is an IT guy who is using it as a "home " office.... met him because he tracked me down- he found my boat note book at the phone booth[ my brain/memory!!] and managed to find me via a receipt from UK sails...good detective work. Also met his neighbor who is on exec of N.Sidney Yacht club who invited me over to see the club some time,etc. He also mentioned that he has delivered boats from Hawaii; on his last trip the Pacific High forced them to sail north of Vancouver Island! and return via inside passage. He also pointed out 2 boats on the hard being repaired -- they were boats leaving here to join last weekend's Swiftsure race; one boat went aground on rock outside of the marina , the other on Zero Rock. The later has major damage to his keel and they have to cut away his interior to repair it -- ouch!

PS: will upload some photo's when I find the cable I need to transfer between camera and computer [ I had it yesterday but it appears to have gone walkabout!!]

Phase 2- update 1

I've just learned that my trip to Saudi has been postponed by 2 weeks; so that puts paid the original work plan; i'm trying to confirm new flights then decide how much work to do now before I leave for Saudi,etc.

In the meantime, i've added some photo's from the "sea trials" with Stewart and Terry. The photo of the "the tool" is the brass washer I made into a compass adjustment screwdriver with the help of the trusty Dremel tool.... not sure how I got along without the Dremel before now.
The infamous "tool" at work...unfortunately the compass is still not correct.


The genakker that will soon be tamed by a ATN sock.

The Coyote canvas owner, Hank, here is doing a test fit of the new bimini
---------------------

Start of "phase 2"

Stewart and I arrive on Sunday May , one day behind schedule due to mud slide west of Golden. We waited for a while, were told that the road may not open at all that day so we decided to head south via the crowsnest route. This added about 500 km to the trip; we overnighted in Hope and arrived about noon on Sunday.
I got up the mast and installed the repaired wind transducer which now works!! I went up again to the spreaders to clean off the moss that had grown underneath; i didn't need to worry about an upper body workout that day.

Terry came over Monday evening and Tuesday morning we got the new battens for the mainsail to replace the old ones that were severly twisted due to improper flaking of the sail over winter.

We tested the drogue: this worked well but the retrieval was a bit of a rodeo. I'll need to add an eye splice at the end of each bridle to facilitate bringing it in via a winch. Also the storage bag Neil is making is critical, since pulling it out of a duffel bag results in a large rat's nest that needs to be sorted before deploying it; this is all well and good in the gulf islands in 10 kts of wind - it would be a real rodeo in storm conditions when you would be doing this for real.

We spent the night at Montigue harbour, then used the next day [yesterday] to adjust compass [ not a success] and test fly the various storm sails and genakker. All was successful other than the compass adjustment.

Today we sailed off the buoy and out to Satellite channel before turning on the engine for the final run home. PS: the batteries barely got the engine started so it is definately time to retire these old guys.

As luck would have it there was a 'master mariner' [ not sure that that is , but it is on his business card!] at the boat next door when we arrived. I asked him about compass adjustment, he said it sounded like our adjusters were maxed out and gave me some things to do. If that fails, i'll have to resort to spending some partial BU's to get it done by a pro.

Stewart and I have cleaned up the boat, will have a pub meal and tackle winches tomorrow before Stewart flies back tomorrow evening.

Over and out,
Bruce

Top is the old tank wrestled out of its lair, below is new, "neater(?)" installation with new tank on the left

End of Phase 1 -- update

So, here we are on day??.... not sure but it seems like a long time. Actually it is April 29 so that makes it Day 19!!!

It has been a while since i've bored anyone with our latest trials and tribulations.

Hot Water Heater:

This turned into the "project from hell": it was almost 5 days to remove the old tank which barely made it out of the hatch. It was heavy and had metal feet that were snagging on insulation making it next to impossible to move. It was removed and out the companion way...at one time I had rope around my neck supporting tank as I backed out of the cabin where it lives!

New tank reflects some improvements: plastic housing not metal, solid foam insulation, not household fiberglass,etc. It is lighter and slippery so it went in very easy. Not so easy was rearranging the piping to make it "neater". The accumulator tank needed to be replaced, so I made decision to put in new variable speed pump which eliminates the need for tank and runs quieter [ in theory]. This was all in but there were leaks in the brass fittings, which meant dooing them all over again. Turns out they need more than 2 wraps of Teflon tape to seal. After re-checking all 34 hose clamps and pressure testing, all is wel. EXCEPT that it seems to be almost as noisy as the previous pump, albeit it a different noise. The plan was to test with cold water, then the electric heating then the glycol circulation from the the engine.

Of course that requires running the engine!! I was concerned about glycol leaks since there are 6 brass fittings and to replace/repair them would mean un-mounting the tank.

We got engine started, but it overheated and no glycol was circulating; best guess was stuck thermostat; while replacing the thermostat I inadvertently hit and closed the fuel tank shutoff valve. We started the engine, it began to surge then stalled.

Visions of many boat units going to new engine flashed through my head. After I calmed down, and then found what I had done, I thought all was well.

I was worried about having damaged the Racor primary fuel filter by the engine sucking on it with the fuel valve closed: changed that, cleaned out the bowl, then decided it would be best/prudent to change the secondary fuel filter on the engine.

Problem was that the old filer had 3 sealing rings and the official Perkins part I had to replace it only had 2; I had also found gunk in the heat exchanger; I booked 1 hr of Gartside mechanic to confirm I had proper filter (yes, it seems that mechanic that changed the last filter left in a sealing ring!). He suggested that the gunk in the exchanger was from old hoses breaking down.

Since he was here, he walked me through proper bleeding and the engine is now running, confirmed no glycol leaks and we now officially are back to square one with operating engine and hot/cold running water.

This accounts for many hours head down,ass-up in locker which hasn't done much for my not-so supple upper body.

Y valve in the head:

After getting this awful job all back together, we had a minor leak when the tank filled up. One of the hose connections is leaking on the run from the tank to the Y-valve.

I had noticed that on the old valve, they had ground off the hose barbs to make a better seal and ( so I thought) make it possible to actually get the hose onto the fitting in tight quarters with such stiff hose ( sewage hose is very stiff!). So, without test fitting it , I got out the trusty Dremol tool and did the same. It appears that the new Y valve is slightly smaller diameter, so of course, by removing some of the barbs, i've made the fitting too loose; the hose clamps can't compress the stiff sewage hose to make seal.

I have 2 choices: try to put enough sealing tape and sealant and hope for no leaks or suck it up, buy yet another Y valve ( less than 1/10 of a boat unit) and redo the whole shebang.... I think it will be the later; else I'll constantly be waiting for the next holding tank leak.

Update to the Update: decided to take no chances and installed new valve last night (April 30); 3 hrs bent up in the head, but no leaks now.

Steering Column:

After talking with various "experts" the best I can determine is that some portions of the chain links are sticking and that it is not a problem to worry about. While taking it apart I was close to sheering off the machine screws that hold down the compass; obviously they have not been removed for some time.

Since they are steel screws into an aluminum housing, they should be coated to retard corrosion that will lock in fittings and make them impossible to remove. They should be coated with zinc chromate paste; Robin made the rounds of the chandlery's : no one had any or knew what should be used.

I bumped into Brent at Blackline Marine [ when you spend boat units, you get to know many repair types!...he did the new rigging on Tatoosh a few boat units ago!]

I asked him what they used: zinc chromate, I asked who stocks it: no one, they buy it from england! He agreed to sell me small tube. I send Robin over with the ship's Toonie collections ( kept for showers,etc when at marinas) thinking it can't be more than $12. Turns out I forgot the old adage about how prices go up when you add the word "marine"...this stuff is even worse since it is used both in marine and in aviation.....tube was $39. There is enough here that I'll leave this tube to some lucky winner in my will.

Other News:

Turns out the life raft that came with the boat is actually a used aircraft type life raft; Robin took it into a life raft re-packer and they told us the bad news. Not only is it not a marine raft but it is very old: basically it is trash and we need to look at new raft..... how many boat units will this turn out to be??

Plan now will be to ramp down, close up and return later in May to finish the rest of the TODO list.

We have taken great delight in using our pink highlighter to mark off the DONE items; The score on the list is 29 priority items gone, 24 remaining. Not bad considering that the water heater battle was not even on the list!!

MORE snow

So, it can snow in 'paradise' and in April even!!... it is chilly.

This is the finished dodger, protecting us from the driving rain and SNOW!!

This is the state of old dodger track removal.

Latest & Greatest-- Day 9

Day 4/5:

The good news for today is that the manufacturer of the water heater is still in business and the replacement tank has same dimensions/orientation as the original... so I'm told. the 'bad' news is that Raritan is a top of the line tank and has a top of the line price...but it is still less than one Boat Unit [ the Valiant Owner's site members talk in Boat Units, similar to using poker chips rather than real money... you have a bit of disconnect and it isn't so painful when they are gone] - one BU being $1000.

Tank will be here on or about April 20, so until then we need to boil for dishwashing hot water..... no different than being out at sea.

We did manage to get some items knocked off the list without adding too many new ones.

The diver is coming out thursday for zincs,etc and wednesday is the survey of the boat required for insurance.

Robin will paint/galvanize the anchor tomorrow, while I put a liner in the nav station storage cupboard [ to keep items away from hoses and wiring] and then try to tackle the Y-valve replacement in the head.

Robin has found the optimum placement of supports for the grate in the head that has all but eliminated the annoying squeaking -- this will be a big bonus during the late night bathroom parade for anyone in the V-berth or salon berth.

OTHER NEWS:
We are watching with interest the slow [ very slow!] framing of the floating house being built in the old dry dock area of the marina. It is being built on a concrete base that is built like an upside down box filled with foam.

Canoe Cove has paved over the boat work area and all wash water/surface wastes are now collected rather than being dumped into the water. Each boat area has thin plastic mats to keep crap off the pavement and make it easier to clean up boat debris.....

Not so good is that it appears that the Stonehouse pub is out of business; this means no option for a walk for burger/beer. At least no option for a short walk; now the nearest pub is the Blue Peter over at VanIsle Marina, which is about a 3 k walk.

Day 5 to Day 9!

The new dodger is in place and Coyote canvass has done a remarkable job; all trimmed in natural leather,etc. We are very pleased and will be ordering a bimini to protect us from the Gulf Island sun...what a joke!... as i write this beside the diesel heater, in a cabin that is at 13 degrees, it is snowing and blowing and about 5 outside....not typical April weather. We had to negotiate ice/snow on the deck this a.m. to make our way gingerly to the dock.

There are some major issues to be resolved soon:
▪ testing batteries shows they are due to die soon; these need to be replaced. Probably a good time to upgrade the charger also?
▪ while tightening the steering cables, I noticed a noise in the steering column that needs to be tracked down.
▪ Robin noticed that the steering quadrant interferes with tank vent line; this needs to be re-routed
▪ waiting for new pump for the diesel cabin heater
▪ still trying to resolve head Y-valve problem: my epoxy fix of handle didn't take, and we are still stubbornly trying to find a replacement handle rather than having to buy a whole new valve. It isn't the valve cost that is the issue, it is the thought of having to tear out the old valve ,etc. I may buy valve just to get handle and then keep valve body as a spare.

We re-mounted the anchor yesterday in the cold blow/rain that was the buildup to today's snow.

Update on the head: the squeak is back and I guess we just have to live with it.

The boat surveyor has come and gone [ boat needs to be officially surveyed periodically for insurance purposes]; this was same surveyor who we used when we purchased Tatoosh. He didn't find any problems which is good news.

Today is going to be used up doing email run, taking outboard to dealer for service and tracking down some parts...yes these are poor excuses to avoid working in the snow!!

Day 3 - saga continues

Day 3 - Chores Continue and more discoveries

We tackled tasks today that would maximize the presence of the shop vac: this included cleaning out spots of the boat that had not seen the light of day for some time as well as doing some dremel/plastic cutting projects.[ cutting down pamphlet-book boxes to fit the shelves and re-sizing plastic dividers from the head cupboard to be used in the storage over the stove.]

While Robing did a town-run, I replaced the pressure switch on the water pump; that fixed the pump chatter problem of yesterday. However, as I was getting the cabin put back to normal, the pump kicked in; since I was not running any water this could only mean a leak; sure enough it was NOT the repair I made in the fall but hot water leaking out of the water tank.

So, we knocked off a few items off the list but now have to ADD : buy new water tank, disconnect old tank without spilling engine glycol over the bilge/berth, and lift old tank out of the hold without putting out our backs. Oh yes; need to make sure that the replacement tank has plumbing connections in same orientation or else it will be major plumbing effort.

No, I didn't get to replacing the Y-valve in the head as planned!; that will be later in the week....Ensh'alla [god willing] as they say in Saudi.

Day 2: Update

April 12 - Day 2

We arrived at E Dock on April 10 in the afternoon after overnighting in Hope enroute from Calgary. Appears we were fortunate to not have delayed leaving Calgary, otherwise we would have been delayed by the record April snowfall.

After off-loading the car and getting Tatoosh habitable, we went through the master work list (MWL) to extract a 'reasonable ' list of chores for Day 1. I'm sure you are all anticipating what happened next and you are correct: best laid plans and all that.

There were 15 items on the list for Day 1, mostly minor and one major item to " install new bolt track"; this is the extruded alumunium track that the new dodger will be secured to the boat with. At the end of Day 1, we had crossed off 2 1/3 items ( one of them was a multi-task!) and while reviewing the list we added 10 more items: net gain for the day was negative 7.66!! I had estimated before coming that putting on the new track would have taken 1/2 day, but it is going to be the better part of 2 days. Removing the old track and installing the new track translatted to:

• rent drill since my cordless didn't have torque to drill out old pop rivets
• buy a pop-riviter
• return to hardware and replace 2 broken drill bits
• use dremal tool to remove stubs,etc
• buy hammer to use with cold chisel [ where did original hammer go??]
• fill old holes in gel coat
• buy more drill bits
• replace rivets that were purchased yesterday.... not correct size
• rent shop vac to clean up mess from drilling,etc

As we sit here at end of day 2, new track is now in place and the enlarged day 1 list is now "down" to 14 items; longer than original Day 1 list but less than 23.66 that were there at start of the day! We are now ready for Hank to show up next week and install the new dodger which will be a big improvement.

One would think that an engineer who has spent a lot of his career managing projects or managing project managers, would have a better clue!

While I was farting around with this, making 3 trips to town/hardware/rental place, Robin was beavering away at cleaning up the joint; making better progress than I was.

On the plus side, the weather today was fantastic, it was sunny and forecast to be 19. We took a short break to take back the drill/get shop vacuum and incidently get a latte; drank it on a bench at the Sidney waterfront and watched the local sail club racing for a bit. There wasnt much wind and we could see one boat having rounded a mark near Sidney Spit park was flying his spinnaker, but was moving backwards against the island , being pushed by the ebb current!

Tomorrow we will try to finish off yesterday's list and I will start the potentially ugly job of replacing the Y-valve in the head. I had thought of leaving this nasty task for Stewart when he comes out but decided that would not be very fair.

Stay tuned for further updates!

Spring Clean up - when!?!

We are now planning to leave Calgary on Monday; the holdup has been cleaning out the greenhouse since it is sold and will be [hopefully] dismantled by the new owner while we are away. For that to happen, we needed to clear out our stuff [done] and have a garage sale [ actually a greenhouse sale!] to get rid of the residual stuff. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate last weekend so it is this weekend.

I've got the plastic to line the dry locker from Industrial Paint & Plastics (plus some other stuff....great shop if you have a plastic fetish); the replacement mast head unit for the wind speed/direction has arrived, the rain gutter material to install over the ports has arrived. No word from sail loft re repairs to sails, but communication is not their strong point - so I assume all is well. Hank from Coyote Canvas called to confirm that the new dodger is ready; he is waiting for me to install the new bolt rope on the coach roof. This will be great new addition -- it has re-inforced Sunbrella material plus upgraded quality plastic windows,etc. Photo's will be posted once it is in place.

All we need now is for spring weather to hit the coast so that we can actually do some outside work!

The trip out should not be as tiring as previous trips; we will be giving our new Subaru Legacy a road trip test drive. I can even play my iPOD so we don't have to listen to fading CBC stations.

Will a satellite radio be next on the geeky technology purchase list?

VIA Blog on PDF

When I was in Saudi last year, I used some of my 'spare' time to extract the blog text from the VIA blog [ see "links" on this blog], re-arrange it into chronological order and put it into a PDF file. If anyone is interested in getting a copy of it, please let me know by email to cbrucewarren@gmail.com and I'll send along a copy.

--
Regards,

C. Bruce Warren P.Eng

Route Plan

This route is a "rough" plan using routing planning software for the expected wind pattern for the time we'll be out. It also provides 5-6 days non-stop from exiting Juan de Fuca up to QC City. The remainder of the trip will depend on timing, crew schedules,etc.

At minimum we hope to stop mid-island and then at Ucleulet [ perhaps Bamfield also?]. Again, this is all very preliminary until I"ve confirmed timing and crew availability, etc.

Planning to get ready - bulletin #1

During our house sitting of Terry's house on Saltspring during January, one of my tasks was to go through the never-ending TODO list of boat chores and prioritize those that need to be done for the QCI trip.

I did that and tried to put some realistic estimates for the effort for each task (using the boat factor: a task that would be 1-2 hours at home will be at least 1/2 day on a boat). The result was a list of 22 days worth of work of #1 priority tasks.... a bit of a surprise.

These range from repairing the leaking sink drain to installing the repaired wind direction/speed transducer onto the mast-head. Major work like installing and re-wiring a new electrical panel will be done post-Trip; also post-poned is the plan to re-configure the salon into a dinette arrangement. We both had visions of getting 1/2 way into either of these projects and finding a major glitch that would impact being ready for the Trip. These will be good fall projects; i.e. we can walk away without impacting our sailing season!

I only managed to re-build one hatch cover over the winter and have put the other 2 covers down to level 2 priority; i.e. will try to get it done before winter but likely after the QCI trip ( i''ll refer to this as the Trip in future ).

At the moment I have small jib at the sailmakers for repairs and the original large genoa in to be recut to smaller. (it was a 130% and will end up at about 110%). We have found that Tatoosh sails much better with smaller jib rather than large genoa ( at least more comfortable to handle) without sacrificing much speed. These and storm sails will be tested in various combo's before the Trip.

I've also received our series drogue from Australia and we need to test rigging and retrieving this wee beastie. The US coast guard recommended this type of drogue after much study which you can read at the drogue vendor's site: www.seriesdrogue.com

Robin and I expect to be out on the coast about April 6 or so; as well as working, we will be doing a bunch of training exercises to get Robin up to speed. She is planning on taking the next level of ISPA training and prudently wants to hone her skills before getting onto a strange instructor's boat. She has been studiously going through our old ISPA notes.

Stay tuned! I will try to upload a screen shot of the planned route for the Trip as well as a task list for priority 1 tasks to give you a flavour of what is in store for April.

New Trip - background & Crew

I decided to start another blog to share the upcoming trip in Tatoosh. The "VIA" trip around Vancouver Island in 2006 was to have included some offshore days to act as a dry run for last years trip to Hawaii. Circumstances didn't allow the offhshore componant on that trip and my "3 month" contract in Saudi Arabia was extended such that virtually no sailing happened last year, never mind a trip to Hawaii! Robin and I got out for 2 weeks in November before putting Tatoosh to bed for the winter and that was the extent of sailing for 2007. By the way, the planned re-naming of Tatoosh is being postponed until we have her up on the hard to repaint the red strip. [ I am too cheap to put on letters now and then have to replace them when we repaint in the fall] The current plan is to organize a short ( 5 days or so) offshore run to act as a dry run [ more on this later] for the trip to Hawaii next year. Life is moving on, I'm not getting younger and if this is really going to happen, I need to keep the ball rolling. Rather than just sail west into the Pacific and return, we will do a large arc from Juan de Fuca and go to the QCI. Hopefully we can get visiting permission and tour the Hadi Gwai area before returning down the west coast of Vancouver Island. Timing is not firmed up but it will be mid-July after we return from my niece's wedding in Nova Scotia at the end of June.

THE CREW

There will be four of us; my youngest son Neil, my friend Ralph (the navigation instructor among other talents) and Robin's brother Terry from Saltspring.

Ralph was crew for the complete VIA trip in 2006; Neil has limited sailing experience but is signed-up for the Hawaii trip so he will be getting his 'sea legs' on this trip - hopefully he will stay signed-up after this trip is over! Terry has sailed with us a few times in the past and this will be his first off-shore venture.